Mermaid and Sea Turtle Seascape Tag

I'm here today to give you my version of a sea escape a la Creative Embellishments. 

The ocean is filled with wonder, beauty and a bit of  mermaid magic.  

I made a giant tag expressing my love of the ocean and it's creatures.  

The tag features some really amazing elements from Creative Embellishments. 

Large Tag - 5.5"w x 10"h

Mermaid Pair

Sea Turtles

Fancy Oval Frame Set

Large Tags are so cool and trendy.  

The large tags from Creative Embellishments offer a perfect blank "canvas" for these darling chipboard pieces and for your fabulous imagination.   They offer  5in x 10in of work space...that's quite a bit!

Plus they come in packs of 3!  Yep - what a value!

The sea turtle and mermaid chipboard pieces have gorgeous intricate details burned into the pieces that I wanted to highlight.  In order to work with the chipboard details and not cover up the fine details, I decided to dab on liquid pearls to color the pieces different colors.  I felt I was not skilled enough with acrylic paint to stay inside the tiny lines so I needed a different option to treat the chipboard.  

Ranger Liquid Pearls come in an assortment of vibrant colors that do not bleed and run when applied to the chipboard.  For me, these worked perfectly within the fine details of the chipboard pieces. 

As a finishing touch once the liquid pearls were dry, I dabbed some Ranger Crackle Accents - Crackle Medium   here and there over the top of the liquid pearls to provide the illusion of movement, especially in the seaweed and mermaid hair. 

These are the colors I used: 

Ranger Liquid Pearls - Ocean Blue

Ranger Liquid Pearls - Mermaid

Ranger Liquid Pearls - Key Lime

Ranger Liquid Pearls - Baby Blue

As the Crackle Accents dried, I sprinkled gold micro beads on the chipboard (fine glitter would be nice as well).

You can see how cool the Crackle Accents looks on the turtle shell and the mermaid tail in the next two shots below.  The secret to using Crackle Accents is to let the medium dry thoroughly - without using the heat gun.  For me, patience may be the biggest challenge when completing any project.
Patience you say?????   Oh the horror of it!

I added stenciling to the background of the tag using Prima's Bubbles Stencil by Finnabair

 and Prima's Art Basics - Heavy White Gesso.    This stencil is probably on of my favorites.  It's just fun. and it makes great bubbles in the ocean.  

Happy Crafting and thanks for visiting.  

Where to shop? 

You can shop for Creative Embellishments chipboard, veneers, flairs and more right here.  

Creative Embellishments - Large Tags

Creative Embellishments - Mermaid Pair

Creative Embellishments - Sea Turtles
Creative Embellishments - Fancy Oval frame Set

Ranger Crackle Accents - Crackle Medium (big bottle)
Ranger Crackle Accents - Crackle Medium small bottle

Ranger Liquid Pearls - Ocean Blue
Ranger Liquid Pearls - Mermaid
Ranger Liquid Pearls - Key Lime
Ranger Liquid Pearls - Baby Blue
Prima - Finnabair Elementals Stencil - Bubbles
Prima Art Basics - Heavy White Gesso

A Christmas Canvas/card - Featuring Victorian Christmas by Prima and Frank Garcia

Prima's Victorian Christmas by Frank Garcia!

If you don't have this collection yet, go grab it up.  It's a Christmas collection and yet, once the holidays are over, you'll still be pulling this out and using the gorgeous non-holiday prints.  This collection has stripes and polka dots and music notes.  Can't get more versatile than that!!

Today I feature the paper with the music notes - the "B" side of the paper. 

This is a canvas/card that I made with a lot of dimension.   I put a variety of flowers in this card you can can see a good array of the collection.  

I am also gluing a card to the back of this to turn it into a card. It doesn't even have to be a canvas.  It can stay a card and you can frame it. 

This collection has such rich warmth - perfect for a vintage flair.  I actually used the 12x12 papers here because I wanted a pattern that was bigger than the 6x6 pad.   I also have one of Prima's newly released stencils as a background.  

Scroll down a bit further and I'll show you how I made the base of my canvas/ card.  But first a few more close ups.  I'll even show you where you can still grab this collection. 

 OK so here's how I made this:

I started with some heavy white gesso and a stencil placed onto the "B" side of this piece of Victorian Christmas paper - the music notes side. (Prima Frank  Garcia Victorian Christmas Paper - Un e Carte de Noel).

I used the heavy gesso because it tends to stay bright white.  I find that molding paste often doesn't keep it's initial bright white color.  When I want white - I'd like it to stay white, ya know what I mean?   

And this is how the stenciling turned out.  I cut around it once it was totally dry.  Pretty, right?

Next I decided to make it a bit more dimensional.  I backed it with cardboard and cut the cardboard out. 

To add the Santa image from the Prima Frank  Garcia Victorian Christmas Paper - Un Chant de Noel paper, I simply placed the Santa image behind the stenciled circle and all is perfect!

From there, I mounted this to my card, canvas or cardstock and finished embellishing.  You can add flowers anyway you like, but to me, the construction of the base is the most important to understand. 

In my flower clustering, I used one main anchor flower and then add filler.  Filler in this case are the floral berries from the collection as well as some pine punches and little snips of gold trim and red holly leaves. 

Thanks for looking and stopping.
Best of all, you can grab this collection right here at the Flying Unicorns store.

Prima Products:
Victorian Christmas Collection can be found right here
583460 Prima Frank  Garcia Victorian Christmas Flowers- Midnight  Kiss
583415 Prima Frank  Garcia Victorian Christmas Flowers- Holiday Lights
583491 Prima Frank  Garcia Victorian Christmas Flowers - Sleigh Bells
990534  Prima Frank  Garcia Victorian Christmas Paper - Un Chant de Noel
990497  Prima Frank  Garcia Victorian Christmas Paper - Un e Carte de Noel
991050 Prima Frank Garcia -Memory Hardware - Cours Mirabeau Floral Lace
582845 - Prima Stencil 6x6 Doily 1
961442 - Prima Finnabair Heavy Gesso - White

Other products:
Gold Braid Trim
Cardboard
Floral Berries
6x6 canvas board

Blitsy - Stenciled Star Cards - One Card - Three Looks

Stenciling with Heavy Gesso 

With July 4th just days away, it's time to kick the celebration into gear.  

I am on the Blitsy blog today demonstrating how easy it is to use heavy gesso with stencils. With the increased popularity of mixed media being combined with papercraft, it's time to show everyone how much fun heavy gesso can be. 

I know many of you are seasoned stenciling pros and have been using these molding paste mediums for some time now.  BUT I'll tell you why I prefer heavy gesso instead of molding paste.  Molding paste and I have sort of parted ways.  I have welcomed it's cousin, heavy gesso into my home.  

This card also easily transitions from flat to fat.  Many folks (including myself) love to be able to pop a card in the mail and have it fit comfortably in the envelope.   There are other times when I can hand deliver my card and do not mind it being thicker and more dimensional - embellished. 

There's a super short video on the Blisty blog that will take you through all the steps.  

So hop on over to the Blitsy blog for more detailed photos and the quick video.  

Americana Card - Using Stencils ( With Video)

Layered Stenciling to Create A Card

( you can find the post here at Blitsy)

Stenciling can be an easy and fast way to make a card or provide background texture to a scrapbook page, canvas or altered piece of home decor. Combine different stencils and you've got a unique and fascinating project in the making.

I'd like to  show you the basics of this technique with a versatile way to use stencils and an equally versatile example.

I also have a short  short 4 min video to show just how easy this technique is by creating a quick "Primitive Style" card as an example to get those ideas flowing. Her card is classic Americana and is perfect for every occasion, just by changing the stamped sentiment.

Here's a look at the products used. You can create quite a bit of drama on your projects with some simple stenciling and ink.

THE VIDEO IS .....RIGHT HERE!
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Change the sentiment to fit an occasion.

TO SEE THE VIDEO.....CLICK HERE

Enjoy!

Ranger Non-Stick Craft Mat

Ranger Tim Holtz Distress Ink -Faded Jeans, Vintage Photo, Antique Linen , Fired Brick, Aged Mahogany, Walnut, Barn Door

Foam Tape

Prima Stencils - Checks 960179

Prima Stencils Dots 962326

Cardstock - or pre-folded card

Ranger Blending Tool

Ranger Blending Foam Pads

Ribbon

Papermania Bare Basics - Canvas Heart

Raffia

Stamp Sentiment or here is another option

Glue